Then as now, there was no question in the minds of the 99%” that Wall Street was principally to blame for the country’s crisis however much that verdict has since been challenged by disputatious academics.

Not surprised, Hudson took advantage of this opportunity and gave his increasingly disputatious crew a choice: They could return to Amsterdam, having failed to discover anything of significance, or they could take a gamble and strike out across the Atlantic, using either Smith's or Weymouth's journals as their guide.